The instant invention relates to separator devices used in document handling systems for separating individual documents from a stack of documents. More particularly, the instant invention pertains to a separator device mounted for movement in a manner that increases surface contact between the retard mechanism of the separator and the processed documents thereby ensuring more effective separation of individual documents from the stack.
The processing and handling of documents automatically and reliably at high speeds is very important for many business organizations. For example, in a typical corporation large volumes of mailpieces may be generated and received on a daily basis. These mailpieces may include single sheets, envelopes, flats, booklets, magazines, catalogues, advertisements and postcards; all of which may have a different size, thickness, weight, and material characteristic. Whether these mailpieces are being sent out or inducted at a mailroom facility, they are all typically collected, sorted, and processed prior to delivery to their final destination. Since many of these mailpieces may be critical to the organization (i.e. payments received) the reliable and timely delivery of mailpieces is quite important.
High-speed mailing and sorting machines have been developed with the capability to some extent of processing mixed types of mailpieces. Typically these high-speed devices have an input hopper into which a stack of mixed mail is placed. The stack of mixed mail is fed, often in shingled form, to a separator, which has the critical function of separating individual mailpieces from the stack so that the individual mailpieces are fed seriatim downstream in the high-speed device for subsequent processing. The conventional separator accomplishes the separating function primarily through the use of two major components, a retard mechanism and a feeder. The feeder applies a feed force to the stack tending to move the stack downstream while the retard mechanism applies a retard force in opposition to the feed force. In a properly functioning separator, the fine-tuning of these forces results in effective mailpiece separation.
Unfortunately, the fine-tuning of the above-discussed forces becomes increasingly complex when mixed types of mail are being processed. That is, the necessary retard force needed to separate and feed thick mailpieces may result in damage to very thin mailpieces. Conversely, if the retard force is set too low, multiple documents may be fed through the separator at the same time. Due to the above problems, operators of these high-speed devices often perform a manual presort of the mailpieces to create more uniform stacks of mailpieces for processing. As each stack is processed, manual adjustments are made to the separator to obtain the force profile required for the effective separation of the type of mailpieces in each stack. Naturally, the presorting and manual adjustment requirements slow down the processing of the mailpieces considerably.
Further, in many separators the retard mechanism is an active device such as a plurality of belts driven in opposition to the drive direction of the feeder. These active retard mechanisms require a drive system, which adds additional cost and complexity to the retard mechanism.
Therefore, what is needed is a separator that effectively separates individual mailpieces from a stack of uniform or mixed types of mail. Further, the separator should have a passive retard mechanism and be self-adjusting to accommodate various thickness mailpieces.
A separator includes a housing, a feeder mounted in the housing for feeding documents along a feed path and a retard mechanism mounted in the housing along the feed path and opposite to the feeder. The retard mechanism includes a body and a pad attached to the body. The body is mounted at first and second pivot points such that the body and pad can rotate around the first and second pivot points.